My friend Steve has an AOL email address, as he clearly was an early adopter of fresh technology. He writes to me every Saturday morning and just seeing that he’s done so prompts the turn-crackle-crash-squeak of the late-‘90s AOL in my mind’s ear.

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I've been a subscriber to Steve's emails for close to ten years now, but he was sending out his "quotes of the week" long before I was tuned into them.
His weekend blasts are reminiscent of the best parts of the Reader's Digests that used to sit on the back of every toilet tank. Inside each issue is simply a list of interesting quotes, punctuated by attributions, with no clear throughline. And then he wraps with some sort of pleasantry, either a gag or a video or an old-school comic.

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Here are some of the quotes I've saved over the years:
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
--Desmond Tutu
"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."
--Michael Altshuler
"A mother is neither cocky nor proud, because she knows the school principal may call at any minute to report that her child has just driven a motorcycle through the gymnasium."
--Mary Kay Blakely

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Once a year, Steve includes a "Happy New Year!," but typically there is zero support copy in his emails.
Except for one time he wrote to me directly to cheer me up in a time of troublesome transition: "I'm a huge believer in new starts, life changes, etc. They are very energizing and often exciting. Doing the same thing over and over gets old eventually, and we all need new things and excitement and learning experiences in our life. Good for you!"

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I have no idea how many recipients there are, but I fancy his readership to be quite large. In fact, I imagine that most of the folks I know get "quotes of the week."
About once a month, someone I love will tell me a joke that feels familiar. It's a story to start, that builds and builds, and ultimately wraps with a drum-smash of a punchline.It always tracks back to Steve's email.

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Growing up, I checked out every joke encyclopedia and one-liner collection I could find in the grade-school library. I dog-eared pages, rewrote favorites, and practiced them in the mirror.Steve is a modern-day curator of the classic joke book. Except he delivers each publication to our inboxes every -- turn-crackle-crash-squeak -- Saturday morning.
Joy, just joy. And good news. The very best application of all this newfangled technology.

People are THE BEST.
LoveLoveLove,

**Did you see that we have our own social-media homes now?
IG: @letmetellyouthisgoodnews​
FB: Let Me Tell You THIS​
Follow along and invite your people; this kind of connection is the highest use of technology.